The start of a new year presents me with an existential quandary: what do I do next? At the stroke of midnight a new day begins — just as it does every day — and while in one way nothing has changed, in another way everything has. As this arbitrary deadline passes, there is a paradigm shift, and I find myself thinking that change is afoot and that I need to decide what will change or risk having change thrust upon me.

So that is with all that psychic baggage that I went into the first weekend of the new year. I had a decision to make: which of my three front burner crochet projects would I work on first? The nine crochet remnants I was transforming, the gingerbread house crochet tissue box cozy, or the Olivia inspired crochet pig?

Because they where nearby, I started with the rehab of the nine patch of crochet remnants, and while it wasn’t exactly the speediest of crochet tasks, eventually, it was done:

I was pleased with the result and while part of me wanted to take a photo of these nine rehabbed crochet squares with the recently rehabbed fifteen squares, I decided that in the interest of getting crochet done, I would take the one photo and move on.

Down to two front burner crochet projects, it took me almost no time to decide to go with the one that had fewer pieces to be joined.

Earlier in the week, I had grabbed all of the pieces for the Olivia inspired crochet pig and thrown them into my purse. After digging them all out and arranging them, I found myself wondering what level of verisimilitude I really wanted for a crochet pig:

With the pieces laid out in the afternoon light, the future crochet pig had a “Flat Stanley” look, and while I generally liked the way the pig was coming along, the the small black lines embroidered on the hooves had been an absolute nightmare to do, and I didn’t feel that I got the design pay off I wanted for the level of aggravation I had endured to make them.

Rightly or wrongly, when I looked at those hooves, all I saw was the aggravation I had invested in them staring back at me.

So with scissors at the ready, I removed the embroidered lines that had been so laborious to make, and the aggravation those small lines represented to me was gone.

Next, I dealt with the arms. To my eye, they were a bit too long, and after reading about all the ways a person could make joined limbs on an amigurmi, I decided that since this is designed for the infant to toddler crowd, I would go with the safer option and just tack them on, but I also realized that with a few modest changes I could make them fit less awkwardly, so that is what I did, and when the arms were done to my satisfaction, I finally stuffed the future toy pig:

The stuffing of the pig completely changed the expression. It erased the Flat Stanely look and started to give her a bit more life and character.

There is still some work to be done on this crochet pig, but now feel confident that I can bring my vision to fruition, one stitch at a time.